Catch my newest feature from the Spring 2012 edition of edible Hudson Valley, featuring a profile of the amazing artisanal bread baking techniques of the family-owned & operated Our Daily Bread in Chatham, New York. A sample excerpt? Well, if you must…

As a crisp new day breaks over the Sunday morning “coffee & moccasin shuffle” of a winter farmer’s market, Yoni Cohen is seen behind his beautifully merchandized, albeit collapsible, display-for-a-day. He’s engaging in salesman pleasantries with a middle-aged woman who, through her jeweled spectacles, is eyeing up a loaf of French peasant bread. Handing her purchase back to her by way of its unassuming paper sleeve, Yoni thanks her and adds, “I’m sorry, miss, but we don’t slice the bread here”. Befuddlement becomes her as she rebuts, “You sell bread right? I want my bread sliced”.

This out-of-context, slice-of-Rhinebeck moment should not at all be confused with poor customer service. Yoni prides himself and his family’s brand on providing anything but. You see Yoni’s family – the powerhouse behind Chatham-based baking company, Our Daily Bread – are true artisan bakers. So much so, in fact, that the aforementioned exchange is a result of the expediency with which the freshly baked bread is handled.

To understand fully what this means, let’s take a look at the process of baking bread, which, in the case of the Cohen family, is not a far cry from the journey they have taken to grow a very successful business.

The issue is available across the Hudson Valley now, but in case you can’t find it out & about, you can check out a PDF scan of my article here.